Saturday, December 14, 2013

I love snow!!! and now when it snows I don't have to be up before the crack of dawn in the store checking to see if we have enough employees to open and dealing with corporate folks! So grateful for that! But it does mean I can get outside, shovel snow away and hit the road with my Jeep and camera, so grateful for that!!! Maryland does have some beautiful countryside but it also has no place to pull off road when you see a beautiful scene, so often you just have to pass it by. This scene is located in a park in Baltimore County. The park is an old homestead the county bought for green space. When I was a child at Christmas time, dad would drive us to my Uncle's home for Christmas day. Our route took us past these wonderful farms along Cromwell Bridge Road. I remember Mom, who was English, saying how lovely they were and reminiscent of her homeland in some way. They had a certain charm and charisma. They also exemplified a social strata which we could only imagine, with horses, barns and large stone homes. Now, this property is open to the public and is falling into disrepair. The fences are beginning to fall down and the once well maintained property is a little more rustic. It is still a great place to go and enjoy the landscape.
The snow all but obscured the high tension power wires that run along the ridge, and I was able to clone out the real distracting ones. Then I applied a little Snap Art 4 filter to achieve the painterly effect. The three tall trees added a point of interest and the fence line just draws you into the scene. The sky was beginning to clear and drifting clouds added a little interest in the white sky.The image below is the barn on this property and I chose a stronger filter in Snap Art 4, as well as a filter called, Black Gold, in Color Efex Pro to adjust tones.
I would have made a little wider crop of this scene but the plow had been through and left a mess in the little roadway just in front of the barn. Looks like we might miss the snow that was predicted for today.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Processed in Adobe CC with Nik Analog and Color Efex Pro using one of the new Flypaper presets engineered for Nik Color Efex Pro. I enjoyed the lens flare in the top of this image, it just makes it feel more summer-like to me so I left it there.

Wow, this is going to be a fast holiday season! When I was in retail management, I dreaded a four week holiday season...shopping days were compressed and the work intensity of each day was magnified. It was so challenging keeping up with customer demands, filling shelves, straightening racks, super long work hours and no days off! It is hard to believe there are just now 23 days til Christmas!
So....today I did some baking and decorating in the house as well as continuing along with my photography file management project all the while enjoying the sounds of Christmas music, that always gets me in the spirit!
As I was sorting image files I stopped and had to process a few I never worked on from my day trip to Cape May in the early fall. I wanted to run a few through the new Nik Analog software and try some new Flypaper designed presets in Color Efex Pro.
The October day in Cape May was very unique, hot and summer like, residents filled the beach. I enjoy capturing back lit subjects and this geographic location made it perfect for shooting back lit subjects in the late afternoon.

The ride on the Cape May Ferry was delightful, with no summer time traffic or crowds. The awnings for the back deck were still in place giving me an opportunity to make a simple, but summer like image.
So there you have it, summer is gone, the beach house is closed...time to get shopping, decorating and card writing! Only 23 days til' Christmas!
Oh and my first Christmas Card arrived in the mailbox on Friday!